As peace process in Nepal nears its conclusion, preparations are underway to decommission the Nepal Peace Trust Fund (NPTF).

Established in 2007, the fund has been managing funds from international donors to support the peace building measures, including holding constituent assembly elections, transitional justice mechanism and support to conflict affected people. It is now looking after the third phase of programmes which are expected to be completed by mid-July 2017.

“We are now preparing a project completion report to effectively close projects under the NPTF,” said Sanjaya Kumar Khanal, executive director of the NPTF. “As per the NPTF regulation, the fund will be dissolved at the end of the current fiscal year.”

According to him, monitoring of works being implemented and detail on collection of goods available with the projects are currently going on.

While eight donor agencies had supported the peace building activities until the second phase of the process that ended in 2013, only the USAID and the European Union are now supporting the third phase (2014-2017). The number of peace building projects has also come down from 72 to seven, according to the NPTF. The fund has released around Rs24 billion since 2007 for different activities, according to Khanal.

“Around 52 percent of that amount was spent to support the past two constituent assembly elections. Around 23 percent of the budget was spent on cantonment management, including infrastructure,” Khanal said, adding that the fund currently has around Rs450 million in bank deposit.

While the domestic resources were used for constructing damaged school buildings, village development committee buildings, government offices in district headquarters, damaged bridges, among others, the resources under the NPTF were used for reconstructing police posts destroyed and damaged during the conflict.

The government and the donors have resources at 60:40 ratio in the NPTF.

“Of the 367 police posts damaged during the conflict, 332 have already been rebuilt. The police posts will be rebuilt within a few months,” added Khanal.

In an email response, donors who supported the fund said that The NPTF served as a platform for dialogue between the government of Nepal and development partners in support of Nepal’s transition from armed conflict to peace since its establishment in 2007, according to donors who supported the fund.

“The NPTF has witnessed some major achievements such as the management of Maoist cantonments, holding of national elections in 2008 and 2013, the re-establishment of the presence of the Nepal police across the country as well as provision of occupational skills for conflict-affected women and girls for their economic empowerment,” the Norwegian embassy said in an email response to the Post.